The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation defines deeper learning as “a set of competencies students must master in order to develop a keen understanding of academic content and apply their knowledge to problems in the classroom and on the job.” In this third report, the focus is on whether students who attended selected network schools had higher educational outcomes than did their matched counterparts who attended similar non-network schools.

The concept of deeper learning has been used both to describe a set of competencies or goals for students, and to characterize a way of learning (or a process) that promotes these competencies. In this report—our second in a series of three—we focus specifically on the opportunities that students experienced to engage in deeper learning in their classrooms.

In the past few years, a movement for “deeper learning” has emerged on the United States’ educational scene, based on decades of development work by educators, support from the philanthropic community, and the interest and engagement of national and local policymakers. This is the first in a series of three research reports on the strategies, opportunities, and outcomes of a set of high schools explicitly organized to promote deeper learning among their students.